US Boards Fleeing ‘Shadow Fleet’ Tanker Weeks After Maduro Raid

U.S. Department of War

American military forces boarded a sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel for thousands of miles after it fled the Caribbean, the Department of War (DOW) announced Monday.

U.S. military personnel conducted a right-of-visit maritime interdiction and boarding of the Aquila II without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility, according to the Pentagon. The tanker was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s “quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” the DOW said.

“It ran, and we followed,” the DOW wrote on X. “No other nation on planet Earth has the capability to enforce its will through any domain. By land, air, or sea, our Armed Forces will find you and deliver justice. You will run out of fuel long before you will outrun us.”

Following the U.S. military raid that captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, the Trump administration has escalated its blockade of vessels operating under sanctions and traveling to or from Venezuela.

The Aquila II departed Venezuelan waters in early January as part of a flotilla that broke the U.S. blockade, according to Reuters. The tanker was carrying approximately 700,000 barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude bound for China, based on shipping schedules from state-owned oil company PDVSA, the outlet reported.

The U.S. did not specify whether it had seized the Aquila II. Most vessels in the flotilla have since returned to Venezuela or been seized by U.S. forces.

“The Department of War will deny illicit actors and their proxies the ability to defy American power in the global maritime domain,” the statement concluded.

After the arrest of Maduro, the Trump administration moved to assert control over Venezuela’s oil production and distribution. The administration has also sought to curb oil shipments to Cuba, which is under strict U.S. sanctions and depends heavily on supplies from Mexico, Russia and Venezuela.